Former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s Thailand trip was a bit shorter than expected.
NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reports Kingsbury will have an interview with the Texans for their open offensive coordinator position on Friday.
The Texans have hired DeMeco Ryans as head coach, and Ryans is expected to add former Cardinals defensive line coach Matt Burke as defensive coordinator. Houston reportedly has already interviewed Patriots tight ends coach Nick Caley and 49ers passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik for the vacant OC job.
Kingsbury, 43, was fired by the Cardinals in January after a four-year record of 28-37-1 (a .432 win percentage), prompting him to head to Thailand with his girlfriend almost immediately afterward.
Although Kingsbury has never held the title of offensive coordinator in the NFL, he called plays and designed Arizona’s offense. During four years with the Cardinals, they ranked in the top 10 in yards gained in the 2020 and 2021 seasons but never finished higher than 11th in scoring.
If Kingsbury is hired, it would serve as something of a Lone Star homecoming for him. He grew up in the San Antonio area a few hours away and also played and coached at Texas Tech for several years. Kingsbury also got his coaching start at the University of Houston, coaching there from 2008 to 2011, and spent one year on the staff at Texas A&M in 2012.
Ryans spoke at his introductory news conference last week about how the Texans’ offense -- which struggled badly last season -- might look under his watch.
“We want to find the best staff that compliments each other and the best staff to support our players,” Ryans said. "We want to play with precision, we want to play with effort, we want to play with physicality. So with that, we want to own the line of scrimmage, we want to establish the run game first, but we want to be balanced.
“We want to be able to operate with the play-action pass, but we also want to be efficient. We want to have explosive playmakers who we can get the ball to. If it's not down the field, we want to be able to throw a checkdown and put it in the hands of an explosive playmaker and see him create.
“Everything about our offense, we want to make sure that we're adaptable to the players that we have. Making sure we're playing to the strengths of our players, getting the ball in our playmakers hand and letting them make plays.”